Allen West: House Committee Members Must Cough-UP Big Bucks to Get on a Committee

Former Congressman, Col. Allen West (Ret.), has told Breitbart News that for a House of Representatives member to serve on a committee, especially an “A-List” committee you must pay into a campaign fundraising fund, maybe a 5-digit payment.

Allen West

“Every member got assessed dues and there were freshman colleagues of mine that they so wanted to be on an ‘A’ committee, in which some of them are listed as, like Ways and Means or Financial Services, and of course their dues were higher to be on an ‘A-list’ committee.”

“The committees that I was on, Armed Services Committee and Small Business Committee, were not ‘A-list’ and so I think my dues per year were around maybe the $50,000 or $60,000 range,” he continued….

As the article points out, committee assignments come with a price tag. The money comes from donors.

“Many of my colleagues in my freshman year that wanted to be on those ‘A-List’ committees, like I said some of those I mentioned are Ways and Means and Financial Services, and a couple others, and then all of a sudden when they got their dues assessment, they were kind of shocked,” West said in his interview with Breitbart News.

“But that was the price that they had to pay to be on those ‘A-Ranked’ committees. That’s on the Democrat side as well. It will cost you,” West explained. “As for chairmanships, that comes with a pretty good price tag in and of itself. Were there some that were shocked by it? Sure, absolutely. I don’t know if it was that real fine print that you see in the contract that they didn’t pay attention to.”

West said he always made it clear to donors what he needed funding for. That’s a smart idea, but I’ve never seen a pitch for Committee Assignment donors. Have you? When a party is a minority in a Chamber, is the minority forced to pay more? Read the entire story at Breitbart

First I’ve heard but it doesn’t surprise me at all. One thing such assessments do is deter the financially modest aspirant to office who doesn’t want to solicit funds from people whose interests might be affected by their donation. Gets rid of one whole category of pests, looking at it from the Establishment view. On the other hand, both of these parties are ceaseless fundraisers so it probably could never be avoided except by criminal charges.